The high court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on Friday (Sep 29), upheld the convictions of over 200 people and sentenced them to various prison terms for committing atrocities on the residents of Vachathi village in the year 1992 which included heinous crimes like cruelty, rape and looting village properties.
The convicts included officials from the forest, police as well as revenue departments of Tamil Nadu.
Justice P Velmurugan, on Friday, also ordered the government to provide an immediate compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to all the 18 women who were victims of sexual assault during the infamous incident.
He further directed the government to recover 50 per cent of the amount from the accused who committed the offence.
Dismissing appeals from the accused, Justice Velmurugan said, “In view of the above discussion and for the foregoing reasons, this court finds all the accused have committed the charged offences. There are no merits in these appeals. All the criminal appeals stand dismissed as devoid of merits. The trial court is directed to secure the custody of the accused to serve the remaining period of sentence, if any”.
The court also directed the state government to either provide permanent jobs to the 18 victims or their family members or help them with self-employment opportunities for their livelihood.
The judge further directed the state government to take strict action against the then District Collector, the then Superintendent of Police and the then-District Forest Officer during the pertinent period.
Vachathi village incident
The incident took place on Jun 20, 1992, when the police teams raided the village along with forest and revenue officials who were searching for smuggled sandalwood at Vachathi village in Dharmapuri district. The assault on the villagers continued for about three days who were considered as “silent supporters” of notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan.
In the year 2011, a lower court in Dharmapuri had convicted and sentenced 215 men to prison terms ranging from 1 to 10 years.
(With inputs from agencies)
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